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Yahoo!

Submission + - Don't let Yahoo! Photos railroad members

Submitted by
Justin Christman
Justin Christman writes: "As you know, the closing of Yahoo! Photos has begun. In conjunction with this, their members are being given one option if they want to completely secure their photos by backing them up onto CD/DVD. That is to use Englaze, which charges $6.95 per CD (per 700MB), plus an additional $1.99 for shipping. As is the case with most things, people don't want to pay more for something when they can get a comparable product for significantly less. That's where we come in. CustomCD.us' product, Backupr (www.backupr.com), is also partnered with Yahoo! Photos (http://new.photos.yahoo.com/shop/product_partners ). However, we provide a backup CD for $5 less (the CD is free; worldwide shipping is $3.99). In addition, Englaze gives users practically no options; it's pretty much either back up all your photos or nothing. Backupr allows people to browse through their albums and choose only those photos that they want to save. The price disparity is far greater for those with a lot of photos who require a DVD. Backupr charges people $9.99 for a full DVD (4.7GB), plus $3.99 shipping. With Englaze, users are charged $6.95 per 700MB, meaning a full DVD costs $48.65, plus $1.99 for shipping. We feel that people have a right to know that better, more economical options are available to them, rather than being railroaded into paying more by Yahoo's preferred partner."
Silicon Graphics

Submission + - Perfect silicon sphere to redefine the kilogram (theage.com.au)

Submitted by MrCreosote
MrCreosote writes: The Age reports optical specialists at CSIRO are helping create a new standard for the kilogram, based on a precise number of atoms in a perfect sphere of silicon. This will replace the International Prototype, a lump of metal alloy in a vault in Paris.
Media

Submission + - Kodak unveils brighter CMOS color filters (eetimes.com)

Submitted by brownsteve
brownsteve writes: Eastman Kodak Co. unveiled what it says are "next-generation color filter patterns" designed to more than double the light sensitivity of CMOS or CCD image sensors used in camera phones or digital still cameras. The new color filter system is a departure from the widely used standard Bayer pattern — an arrangement of red, green and blue pixels — also created by Kodak. While building on the Bayer pattern, the new technology adds a "fourth pixel, which has no pigment on top," said Michael DeLuca, market segment manager responsible for image sensor solutions at Eastman Kodak. Such "transparent" pixels — sensitive to all visible wavelengths — are designed to absorb light. DeLuca claimed the invention is "the next milestone" in digital photography, likening its significance to ISO 400 color film introduced in the mid-1980's.
Utilities (Apple)

Submission + - Adium code forked over Leopard Dispute (livejournal.com)

Submitted by admiralfrijole
admiralfrijole writes: Earlier this week, several people opened tickets against Adium crashes occurring in the latest Leopard Beta, which started a veritable firestorm of controversy that included discussions of GPL violations, disabling features, and quite a spat across no less than 3 different IRC channels.

Today, one of the people who filed a ticket and was told that it would not be fixed until Leopard ships announced on his blog that he, and several other unnamed individuals, have forked Adium to create A.org.
Communications

Submission + - US Interrogation technology

Submitted by
cwatch
cwatch writes: "US Interrogation technologies In the late 90s, someone was developing an intra-cochlear transceiver device for use in remote hostile interrogation, monitoring, tracking and surveillance. The device was designed to sense and transmit sub vocalization (probably like an electromyograph). The device was deployed soon after Bush was elected, along with a bunch of Internet decoy material ("audio spotlight," "acoustic heterodyne,"), to decoy and sidetrack the technologically-challenged subjects. Much of the material appeared to direct subjects to mailing lists mc@topica.com and mc-tech@yahoo.com, where attempts where made to keep them off-track. Does anyone have any additional information on this program?"
Privacy

Submission + - AT&T Announces Alliances with MPAA and RIAA

Submitted by i)ave
i)ave writes: More documents in the AT&T/NSA warrantless wiretapping campaign were unsealed today. Meanwhile, AT&T announced a new policy to spy on customers for signs of copyright violations. They credited their new television service as moving them into the same camp as the RIAA and MPAA. How long before they change names from AT&T to 00&7?
Programming

Submission + - Fun With Redistricting! (nationaljournal.com)

Submitted by
CrabbMan
CrabbMan writes: ""The Redistricting Game" was developed at the University of Southern California to help teach voters that "mapmakers" can have more control over an election outcome than candidates or issues. Politically engineered redistricting, which can protect incumbents and party dominance even if voters are inclined differently, was most recently a hot topic in a Supreme Court decision last year and in the political fall of former GOP top dog Tom DeLay. Lawmakers concerned "the system is out of whack" invited the game's developers to the Hill yesterday."
It's funny. Laugh.

Submission + - IT ads from the past: From the quaint to the weird (computerworld.com)

Submitted by
PetManimal
PetManimal writes: "Computerworld has dug up some funny IT advertising gems from decades past. The highlights include "The Personal Mainframe", Elvira hawking engineering software, and an image of the earliest screenless "briefcase portables." Strange to think that people not only took these technologies so seriously, but also paid big bucks for gear that seems positively primitive now."
Security

Submission + - 150mpg Motorized Bicycles a wave of the future? (motoredbikes.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Motorized bicycles are getting more popular by the day as gas prices are rising. There is a option to curb your high fuel costs for commute to work. Most states do not require license or registration for your motorized bicycles. The gas mileage that I have gotten myself on my bicycle is around 150 miles per gallon. Going to work in cities or out in the sticks it will get you there and quite possibly faster than most forms of transportation. You can see many examples of what the bicycles are capable of and how well they operate as well as do yourself and fellow Americans a favor and cut your oil consumption during this seeming time of Peak Oil. The sound of it may be far fetched however if you look through history, you will notice that after WWII they were used as a major form of transportation. There was incredible destruction to the infrastructure in europe that did not allow for the construction of the automobile. One could almost wish we had stayed in this frame of mind to prevent the situation we are in now.
Networking

Submission + - Tracking stolen laptops via MAC address

Submitted by
ArhcAngel
ArhcAngel writes: "My stepson's laptop was stolen recently and the person who stole it knew exactly where to look. I'm pretty sure he is acquainted with the person who stole it and they go to college together. My question for /. is since I have the MAC address of the laptop and I know where the kid goes to school is there a way to have the college IT dept. flag that MAC address when it hits the schools network? Has anyone ever done something similar and what kind of help or hindrance was the IT dept. in assisting in this kind of request?"
Software

Submission + - Baylor Lab goes open source: $15,000 in 15 minutes

Submitted by
lisah
lisah writes: "The Human Neuroimaging Lab at Baylor College may be best known for their double-blind Coke vs. Pepsi taste test, but they also do a tremendous amount of work in the area of brain research. Recently they added a new unit to the facility that will double their internal network needs and increase their bandwith needs. With a little bit of research and a few minutes of his time, Systems Administrator Justin King discovered an open source solution to address virtually all their expansion issues — and all for less than $15,000. From the article, 'King says he heard about Hyperic from a Slashdot post, downloaded the free [trial] version, and installed the software in one step that took him no more than 15 minutes. 'I thought, 'How easy is this?''"
Privacy

Judge Orders TorrentSpy to Turn Over RAM 726

Posted by Zonk from the i-do-not-think-that-word-means-what-you-think-it-means dept.
virgil_disgr4ce writes "In an impressive example of the gap of understanding between legal officials and technology, U.S. Magistrate Judge Jacqueline Chooljian 'found that a computer server's RAM, or random-access memory, is a tangible document that can be stored and must be turned over in a lawsuit.' ZDNet, among others, reports on the ruling and its potential for invasion of privacy."
Patents

Microsoft's Acoustic Caller ID Patent 185

Posted by samzenpus from the who-do-you-sound-like-today dept.
theodp writes "A new patent granted to Microsoft Tuesday for automatic identification of telephone callers based on voice characteristics covers constructing acoustic models for telephone callers by identifying words or subject matter commonly used by callers and capturing the acoustic properties of any utterance. Not only that, it's done 'without alerting the caller during the call that the caller is being identified,' boasts Microsoft in the patent claims."
Bug

Apple Safari On Windows Broken On First Day 595

Posted by kdawson from the bigger-they-come dept.
An anonymous reader writes "David Maynor, infamous for the Apple Wi-Fi hack, has discovered bugs in the Windows version of Safari mere hours after it was released. He notes in the blog that his company does not report vulnerabilities to Apple. His claimed catch for 'an afternoon of idle futzing': 4 DoS bugs and 2 remote execution vulnerabilities." Separately, within 2 hours Thor Larholm found a URL protocol handler command injection vulnerability that allows remote command execution.

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